Confessions of Team Phantom
by Bowtiesandgracenotes99
Summary: In this series of one-shots, Danny, Jazz, Tucker and Sam all have confessions to make. Told in first-person viewpoint, each one-shot will focus on a different member of Team Phantom. Set right before Phantom Planet. Rated K .
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hello, wonderful readers! Okay, so just in case you didn't read the summary, this is a series of one-shots. This one-shot features a slightly depressed Danny. Now, I know I've already written a more in-depth fanfic about Danny being severely depressed, but this one-shot is different than the story and a lot less angsty. Anyways, I don't own Danny Phantom, yadayadaya, criticism is appreciated as always. Enjoy!

**Danny**

To be honest, I think I'm depressed.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm the hero, therefore I'm supposed to have it all together, right?

Wrong.

It's nothing severe, really. I just don't think anybody can truly comprehend what it's like to literally hold the safety and well-being of your hometown in the glove of your HAZMAT suit. I'm up all hours of the night, my already average grades have plummeted further than ever before and, on occasion, I even forget to eat. Not to mention, there's the fact that every time I do something in the public eye that might even _remotely_ look bad, people automatically forget the other nine million good things I've done and somehow come to the conclusion that I'm trying to destroy the very town I work so hard to protect, and it's all because I've got these ghost powers and a conviction to do what's right.

See, the accident didn't just warp my DNA. It took a timid fourteen-year-old boy who was perfectly content to fly under the radar when it came to bad guys, whether it be ghosts or school bullies, and it changed him, not only physically but mentally. Underneath the snow-white hair and glowing green eyes, I had acquired a sharpened sense of right and wrong, and a deep-seated motivation to act upon that sense. I could no longer stand by when I saw other kids being picked on, and I certainly couldn't run from the ghosts anymore, not when I had the ability to fight against them.

Call it a hero complex, call it arrogance, call it what you like, but I couldn't just sit on the sidelines and watch as innocent people were exploited and harassed. Most would consider this a virtuous quality, but what they don't understand is that it's not always so great. For one thing, my ghost-fighting causes me to neglect my personal relationships at times, and frequently those closest to me will get hurt or injured in some way as a result. I know a day is coming when there will be someone I can't save, and I'm terrified that I might have to choose between the people I love and innocent lives.

There's also the constant pressure to be perfect. Not too long ago, I met my evil future self from an alternate timeline in which he destroyed the entirety of Amity Park, and even though I eventually defeated him, I had a whole lot of help. The possibility of his return is always there, always lurking in the back of my mind like a parasite and influencing every decision I make. Even more fear-inducing is the small but very real chance that, despite the drastic measures I take to stay on the straight and narrow path, I'll still turn into him.

Sometimes I just want to scream in frustration and fly as far away from this town as I possibly can, but I know I can never do that. I can't abandon these people to face the ghost problem unprotected, no matter how difficult it gets. I can't ever stop fighting for what's right, even if I'm despised or scorned for it. Sometimes you just have to give up your happiness for that of the greater good, and if I can't do that, then how can I call myself a hero?


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thanks to all who have read and reviewed! You guys are the best. Now, on with the story! And, as always, enjoy. :)

**Sam**

Believe it or not, Gregor is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

No, not in _that_ way. _That_ was over before it began.

What I mean is, even though I still think he's the world's biggest jerk, he's the reason Danny actually started paying attention to me.

Oh, Danny and I were best friends long before I ever started to see him in a romantic light. If anything, I had been adamantly against anything and everything that had to do with the two of us being a couple.

The accident was what changed all of that. Before the accident, Danny was a boy who refused to stand up for himself, much less for others. It transformed him into someone who cared about the world and the lives of the people around him, and if that didn't attract me, I don't know what would.

Now, don't think for even a second that I was so shallow as to only have noticed him for his ghostly half. That's Paulina's job. _I_, however, fell in love with the change in character. Yes, it's cheesy, but he was a constant good thing in a world full of shadowy gray areas, and despite my gothic outlook on life, that was what caused me to look at him from an entirely new perspective.

Inevitably, he was still stuck like glue on Paulina at this point in our relationship. To acknowledge my feelings, even to myself, would have only led to heartbreak. The seeds were definitely there, though, growing slowly but surely underneath the layer of deadpan indifference I'd constructed around myself.

When he almost dated Valerie, it was all I could do to keep from telling him, in excruciating detail, exactly why Tucker and I always called him "clueless one." I figured that to do that would have been extremely selfish of me, and, all my feelings aside, I would have upset my best friend. I mean, Danny was finally happy, and who was I to intrude upon that happiness? There was no doubt that he deserved it, and the last thing I wanted to do was get in the way. When Valerie pulled the "My-life-is-too-dangerous-for-love" excuse on him, I had to bite my tongue until it bled. She had hurt him too much to allow me to appreciate the situational irony, and it took enormous amounts of self-control to keep from giving her a piece of my mind in a not-so-pleasant way.

Of course, when Gregor came along, I wasn't allowed to have _my_ happiness. Aside from the fact that he was an egotistical manwhore, I had actually enjoyed the attention he'd lavished upon me during the two days I'd spent with him. It was more than anything Danny had ever given me, that was for sure.

Before Gregor's heartless scam came to light, I had been furious beyond belief to discover that Danny had been spying on me. Granted, I'd taken the same mistrustful approach with him and Valerie, but it still angered me, and not that I'd ever admit it, but I was mortified that he'd seen me make a fool of myself over a boy. Only after the fact did it occur to me that Danny had also been concerned about my well-being, even if that concern had been coupled with motives of selfish origins.

I know now that it's not just because of a standard taste in girls that Danny has yet to reciprocate my desire to be something more. It's because I'm his best friend, and he feels a near-unhealthy amount of responsibility for my safety, not to mention the safety of Tucker and of his family. More and more I find myself wishing I could tell him how I feel, but I know I can't do that. It would only succeed in heaping more responsibility on his already stress-laden shoulders, and I'm not sure that's a risk I'm willing to take. I have to think of what's best for him. Sometimes you have to sacrifice what you want most in order to keep your best friend happy, and if I can't do that, then I don't deserve him in the first place.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Thank you guys for reading and reviewing! Thanks to Rose-Aki, xavierfincher and morganrstewart75 for the complements! For some reason, it wouldn't let me put the periods in your usernames. Weird. Reneemon45, yeah, I'm surprised that Danny is still shown as super chipper even after meeting his older evil self. That should have been trauma-inducing. And, as always, thank you to WriterChic for your continued support. It means a lot. And now, enjoy! :)**

**Tucker**

Truth is, I've always felt like a third wheel.

You know how, in certain situations, you just know what's going to happen? You might not know how or when, but you're fully confident in your intuition. You don't need conscious reasoning, you simply know.

That's how it was when Danny and I first got to know Sam. I could tell they were meant to be together right from the start, from the first real conversation we had with her in our sixth grade World History class. Danny and I had seen her around school ever since we were kindergarteners, but we'd never really talked to her, and although they didn't even feel that way about each other yet, I just knew.

Of course, it's taken five years and counting for the two of _them_ to come to terms with that realization. _Five years_. In case you were wondering, that's half a decade of being left out, albeit unintentionally, but nonetheless; it bruises one's self-esteem pretty badly. I've spent the vast majority of that time playing love counselor to their troubled teenage almost-relationship only to be forgotten, ditched and ignored more times than I can count or care to remember. I've heard my name hastily inserted as an afterthought into statements that might have romantic implications if addressed to just one person. I've learned the hard way that either I'm the middle man, or nothing at all.

I have a theory that if they'd just come out with it and tell each other how they feel, most of the tension would evaporate and the three of us could go back to being friends, aside from the fact that they'd _finally_ be a couple. I wouldn't really mind that so much, because then all my painstaking efforts to get them together would be rewarded, not to mention I'd win more than a few bets.

Sadly, they're both more than content to go on in this perpetual state of denial about their painfully obvious feelings, and the worst part is, they use my presence to facilitate it.

Allow me to illustrate. You see, being used as a human barrier of sorts to hold back the emotions on either side is kind of like being a dam. The hormonal waters of adolescent romance warrant a whole lot of pressure, and eventually that pressure builds up so much that the dam bursts and chaos ensues.

So many times I've wanted to break the dam and let the emotional torrents collapse on the two of them, but I know I can't do that. They're my best friends, even if they do forget I exist sometimes. I have to let it happen naturally, for their sake. I have to do the selfless thing, even if I continue to be forgotten. Sometimes, you just have to make sacrifices for the people you care about, and if I can't do that, then I'm no friend at all.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: So sorry about the late update. My family decided last minute to go to the beach for a couple of days and the hotel we stayed at had an unbelievably sucky Internet connection. I would have updated before I left if I had known that the Internet would be that awful. Anywayyyyys, thank you all for reading and reviewing! You're the best. In other news, I have a severe case of writer's block and I have no idea what to write about next, which is why I want to hear from all of you. What would all of you like to read about? You can PM me or put it in a review. I just need some major inspiration. And now, I'll shut up so you can read. Enjoy!**

**Jazz**

Nobody knows it, but I've got a chronic case of ghost envy.

I've harbored a passionate hatred of ghosts ever since I was a small child, but not in the way my parents might have expected. Instead of hunting ghosts, I competed against them; instead of studying them, I preferred to pretend they didn't exist.

A large part of my resentment-fueled animosity towards the spectral world came about as a result of my childhood rivalry with it. I was always vying for my parents' attention, but more often than not I'd lose it to whatever ghost-hunting invention they were working on at the time. Still, I'd always be sure to bring home excellent grades, complete every chore with a disturbing attention to detail and arrive home precisely ten minutes before my curfew every night, just in case they decided to notice my consistent good behavior. It was highly unlikely that they ever would, but I wanted to be prepared.

Of course, when the perfectionist's approach proved ineffective, I naturally gravitated towards the opposite extreme. I recall many a day spent making household messes worthy of being deemed natural disasters only to be harshly scolded and then ignored again. It figured that they'd only notice me when I'd just done something wrong.

I hate to say it, but things got a whole lot worse for me when my little brother had a freak accident involving our parents' ghost portal and, by some divine intervention, survived. Or, rather, half-survived, because even though he still looked and acted like the same Danny I'd grown up with, he'd acquired ghostly abilities that would change everything about him. It had previously been dismissed as impossible, to be both alive and dead simultaneously, but how could I deny what I'd seen with my own two eyes?

Don't take that the wrong way, though. I still loved my baby brother with all my heart, but now he was taking after our parents where he previously would have sympathized with me, and I found myself feeling more and more neglected as my entire family began to leave me behind.

At first, I'd tried to conceal my knowledge of Danny's ghost half from him, thinking that if I aided him from the sidelines, he'd appreciate it more and tell me when the time was right. It took a nasty run-in with his future self from an alternate timeline for him to realize that I knew his secret, and that's when I made the decision to begin actively participating in ghost-fighting. I wanted to feel that I was a vital part of the world around me, so I grabbed a Fenton Thermos and a Spector Deflector and got to work. I gave it my all, yet I still couldn't shake the overwhelming sense that I was out of place, that I didn't belong in my own home.

Once my brother finally got some real publicity, most of the citizens of Amity Park had opened up to the idea that not all ghosts were malevolent. They were beginning to view Danny Phantom as a hero, and the few who refused to acknowledge him in that way spent the majority of their time plotting against him. I had watched my parents infect my brother who had infected his friends and classmates until, little by little, the entire town of Amity Park had become immersed in the ghost obsession.

Then there was me, desperately trying to fit in in a place I never thought I'd want to, not in a million years. If someone had told me even two years ago that one day, I'd actually have a desire to be a part of the small-but-freaky ghost-preoccupied crowd that my parents belonged to, I would have laughed in their face without a second thought. But now, it seems that crowd has grown to include everyone around me. Everything in my life revolves around the one thing that I could never bring myself to accept, the thing that, now that I'm older, refuses to accept _me_.

My thoughts are consumed by my wish to tell someone, but my greatest fear is that no one will listen. I know I can't ever tell, because that would be tremendously unfair to Danny and everything he's given up for the people in this town. I've learned that sometimes you just have to suffer in silence for the sake of those you love, and if I can't manage that, then I can't _possibly_ be the sister of a hero who bears much heavier burdens than loneliness.


End file.
